Defending the blogger, reserving the journalist

Copied from a Facebook post by the page Stratmanjazho

Montage showing
journalists enduring
a storm or typhoon

I saw a post defending journalists while denouncing bloggers. And the photo in that post shows journalists enduring stormy weather and its effects. There is a quote attributed to the Rappler journalist Lian Buan that reads—

"I've said this over and over again—you prefer vloggers and influencers now for your so-called unbiased content, but on our worst days as a nation, it's the journalists who will show up. Remember that."

While the quote may say "vloggers," it means "bloggers" in general. A vlogger is a blogger who publishes his or her blog in video format, as the "v" in the word vlogger means "video blogger." Returning to the quote, it sounds like the journalist fails to recognize the benefits of bloggers. Such an action risks inflaming tensions between journalists and bloggers. I would like to challenge the journalist's quote with my comment in defense of my fellow bloggers.

Bloggers will forever coexist with what the mainstream calls professional journalists. Yes, journalists may be vigorously trained by reputable institutions and work for renowned publishers, but that doesn't mean they are the world's ultimate writers. Journalists face several enormous constraints that render their works enigmatic to the average listener.

The source of the quote.
Link (requires login).

In the name of fairness, journalists have to be generic in their writing approach. This results in frigid and emotionless articles that sound more like academic papers. Try reading a typical news article, and you'll find the contents to be dry like a desert. Another constraint is that journalists have to obtain and verify their works with what is called "reliable sources," which can be books, documentaries, or websites published by recognized professional institutions. Depending on the issues or topics being addressed, articles that go through such a process can take weeks or months of editing before clicking the "publish" button.

Meanwhile, bloggers can publish their works in shorter periods. With their sustained skills in translating descriptions of societal issues into a language common people understand more readily, the works of bloggers are oftentimes more accessible to the average listener. Bloggers also use the art of emotions more frequently, resulting in articles that are more engaging to the audiences. Bloggers maintain more trust than their professional journalist counterparts because they allocate significant portions of their work to practical instructions and everyday issues.

Professional journalists have their own strengths, too. They are excellent at documenting academic or serious issues, such as environmental degradation, natural disasters, or disease outbreaks. As seen in the picture, these are journalists describing issues while enduring bad weather and life-threatening events. I would like to propose a compromise: vloggers can read the works of professional journalists and then translate them into a language more accessible to the average reader.

As a blogger, I am content with journalists regularly denouncing governments and other large institutions. But promoting tensions between bloggers and journalists is a big no-no in an age where people are turning to bloggers for more understandable information. Praising journalists while denouncing bloggers is tantamount to defending durians while denouncing coconuts. As we live in an age where freedom of expression is paramount, cooperation between bloggers and journalists is critical to an informed society. The journalists will document serious societal issues and the bloggers will interpret the works of journalists and give explanations in languages that more people can relate with. Last but not least, bloggers and journalists are like twins separated at birth.